An orchard in Hawke’s Bay destroyed in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. PHOTOS: CAREY HANCOX "It's a war zone ... without the guns." Catlins farmer Carey Hancox is describing the scenes that greeted him in Hawke’s Bay last week after he headed north to lend a helping hand. He headed to Northland first to help a friend clear debris in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, and then to Hawke’s Bay where he saw areas that were "just annihilated". "I’ve never seen that level of annihilation in my lifetime." As an aside to the cyclone damage, what struck him was roadworks between Waipawa and Napier — crews working on the road, not on flood damage — while about 2.5km of traffic was backed up. An aerial view showing the extent of damage among Hawke’s Bay hill country. It was hard to feel useful because there was so much damage, he said. He went into the Esk Valley, an area which was decimated, and saw people trying to "salvage some stuff that wasn’t salvageable" from their destroyed home. There were "trillions" of tonnes of forestry slash; from what he saw, that was a major cause of the damage. Had it not been for that, the area would have still flooded "but at least it would have got away". There were entire hills of pine trees that had washed down, the land already saturated after a wet summer and it was a domino effect. Forestry was a key issue for the class of land in that area — it was too steep and he believed the companies planting the trees should be made accountable for the damage caused. There was also millions of tonnes of silt and nowhere to put it. Rotting carcasses meant the air was "starting to stink". Forestry slash in the wake of the cyclone. He spoke to a family of six who climbed into the cavity of their house at 2am and were airlifted off their roof at 10am the following day, while their livestock "went out to sea", he said. There was confusion about how many people were still missing but speculation did not help anybody, he said. Co-ordination of the response was now the biggest thing and, while he felt "pretty gutted" about leaving — he returned home on Friday night — he was going to help organise fencing gear to get fences back up and stock back into paddocks. Returning home, it was hard for the emotions to settle. "Thinking about what I saw is pretty hard to come to terms with. "Just the feeling of uselessness and wanting to give so much more." sally.rae@odt.co.nz
